It's hilarious how people put HHN on a pedestal of perfection, when it has had several flaws over the years. But give Fright Fest
for just existing.
We've seen the budget tighten & suffer for HHN. We've also seen sub-par quality with IPs (usually a result of budget). Yet everyone turns a blind eye & suddenly has selective memory when another event makes an effort to try something similar to HHN 2.0 (although 2006 was more or less an "original" year).
If you haven't returned to an event in over ____ amount of years, that's on you- not the event. I had a friend from Orlando come in 2017 for their first time, not exactly a good first impression. I constantly remind them they should've gone in 2016. They still want to make another haunt trip out here, but ....budget.
Speaking of 2017, we had SAW that year. It was terrible, unlike the previous 2009 SAW house Hollywood did (which was featured on the SAW V ? bluray as a special feature extra).
HHN has its prestigious title of "movie studio", Knotts has their ego of being first... then you've got Queen Mary just sitting off to the side & watches the chaos while not worrying about competition because they have a ship